2/24/14

Dharma Talk, January 27, 2014: Just Sitting

Today is January 27, 2014 Monday night
class, good evening to you and to those who are listening by way of the internet.
We’re going to continue on what we were going over last week which was a little
bit of the roots of Soto Chan or Mochao, the idea of just sitting - Silent Illumination.

In looking at this last week, we talked
about certain fundamental principles that come into play that have roots way
earlier than the origination of the Silent Illumination School. These
principles we talked about last week were the theory of emptiness,
the theory of thusness, and the theory of the Buddha-nature or Buddha-essence that could be called the
Tathagatagarbha. These all came from much earlier from originations in the Prajnaparamita
Sutra. They also came and were used by the Madhyamaca School and later on the Yogacara
School, and were espoused in the Avatamsaka Sutra which with the Flower Adornment Sutra.

From the Flower Adornment Sutra, all of these became what you could call
“fused” so that they were not separate from each other in terms of the idea of
emptiness or impermanence, the idea of thusness of things, and the idea of the
Tathagatagarbha – this embryonic Buddha-potentiality of things and really how
it houses everything within it; all of these things. When I mentioned “fused,” they
were fused not from this point of view of the theory themselves but from the
utilization of them in the practice. It was a logical direction for all of
these practices and all of these theories to go to be refined within a Silent Illumination
School so that one ceases the idea of the discussion, the idea of theory and
look directly into the matter at hand.

So we get to Chan and Chan always have these statements and talk about
things that don't seem to be right where some will say “I don't understand” and
the master will say “You'll never understand!” And the student will say “Why am
I practicing” and the master will say “Till you find out that you’ll never
understand.” None of that makes any
sense to a person looking at it but in a sincere exploration of these theories
and applying them to the meditation practice, one has a greater chance of being
able to look into mind itself. Saying that and saying “mind itself” doesn't
really do it justice simply because of the fact that when we say that, it's as
if there is some self to mind. There is to the extent of self-nature of mind
but it's all-encompassing and again, it is a fusion. What brings the practice
of Silent Illumination into being is the saying “If we cannot talk about it,
yet we talk about it. What then? How do we get there?” And we get to the point
of the term “The Gateless Gate” Then we go “That’s really helpful, the Gateless
Gate. That doesn’t get me there either.”

I was having some fun with some of my students today. It had something
to do with the story where somebody came to a temple to visit this one master
and the Master after talking to him said, “Go have a cup of tea.” And when the
student questioned about why he asked him to go have a cup of tea, the master
said, “Go have a cup of tea.” So what does this mean in terms of go have a cup
of tea? It gives you nothing to rely upon and nothing to look at, but yet it
also speaks volumes of all of the history and the theories and all of the
wonderful teachers that came before. It’s essentially a distillation of all of
that and saying “This is where the answer is” - one can utilize the theories
from before the theories came from the Vilamakirti Sutra, where all of a sudden,
we start getting into talking about the Tathagatagarbha and talking about these
points of the fusion that were very early on in the practice of Buddhism.

Then Chan takes these and works on them and in doing so, a parallel school,
the Hua-yen School begins to look at this too. They then says, “Wait a second,
these stuff kind of make sense if we look at it from this viewpoint, and takes the
inspiration from the Chan School in terms of the practice in the Silent Illumination
working their theories on the same material, in particular the Avatamsaka Sutra
and in doing so, arrive at the same place in terms of how we get there. Saying
that cheapens it by saying anything is arriving at any place so we have to look
at all of these theories in the context of being practiced.

So for instance, as I indicated to Lety (by text messaging), “Go have a
cup of tea.” And she said, “I’m going to have a cup of tea on my way to class
today.” So she is reflecting her function. She's perfectly reflecting the
response without having to address the question itself by doing that - addressing
the question.

Then she put “…” (dot, dot, dot)

And I should have said “Too many dots.” (laughs…)

But in any case, it just simply takes away anything for a person to rely
upon in terms of conceptual thinking. As we use our mind in our everyday life,
it becomes very difficult for us to sit down to meditate. Because as we begin
to meditate, we use the mind in the same way that we used it during the day - from
the viewpoint of the self. And as we begin to sit to meditate and we say “Oh
Shikantaza, only think about the body” and you start to thinking about the body
and the mind begins process many things.

I remember once when I was a very new student to Master Sheng-yen, one
of his senior students was commenting about Shikantaza and he said that by
watching his body, he was able to see inside his body and all the problems he
had. Master Sheng-yen said, “Very interesting but very foolish. If you're sick,
go to a doctor but otherwise just sit” returning him back to the practice,
stopping the internal discussion, the internal examination because that had nothing
to do with “just sitting.”

So he said, “What is just sitting?”

“Just sitting.” What do you add to it? Nothing, you just sit.

Master Sheng-yen equated this to a bullfrog in a pond sitting on a Lilly
pad. While there were other pads in the pond that the bullfrog could jump to,
the bullfrog was simply content just sitting on this one Lilly pad; just
sitting there with nothing to do. And as this big bullfrog sat on this Lilly pad
because he was so big he covered it completely so that you could not see the
Lilly pad anymore. He was just sitting, no more Lilly pad – total fusion in
that moment, this bullfrog with nothing to do. It’s just like the poem: “Have
you heard of the man of the Tao who has nothing to do?” The bullfrog has
nothing to do. It is this wonderful symbolism and metaphors that really is the
identity of Chan. Not that Chan is difficult to understand, it is quite clear;
quite in the present moment. It has its roots in all the complexities and the
theories that have gone before it, but it pares itself from all that weight of
it but not the practice of it. That's the difference from when it comes.

I remember that there was one time when the Dalai Lama and Master Sheng-yen
were speaking and the Dalai Lama was saying “To be a Chan practitioner, you
actually have to be very intellectual.” And Master Sheng-yen said to him, “Not
really.” Because even in the old Buddhist texts and stories, there's the story
of the Buddha who worked with one student who could not even remember even a
little bit of the Sutras. Any of the things that the Buddha had taught, he
could not remember any of it. As much as he tried to remember a page, a
paragraph, a line, a word, he couldn’t do it. So as a result of that, the
Buddha had him outside just sweeping the courtyard. And as he swept and swept
and swept and swept and swept and swept and swept the courtyard, he entered into
a deep Samadhi and ultimately saw his Original Nature.

And when the Buddha confirmed that on him, you can imagine some of the
more studious students not very happy about that, “Him, him? He’s like stupid!”
How could he do that? How could he get into that point? The point was that one
doesn't have to be this intellectual. Sometimes it's a great obstruction if we
hold on to these concepts. But if we utilize them in the proper way, they can
be quite beneficial to us because then they tell us what's happening. They give
this roadmap to the mind itself. So essentially we follow the “finger pointing
at the moon,” which is another analogy. The moon symbolizing mind itself, but
we don't hold on to the finger and we just simply move towards the moon until
we are absorbed by the moon.

So this is actually a tribute to Dongshan but there's a question as to whether
he was actually the author of this particular poem, the Precious Mirror Samadhi.
He has a line:

A silver bowl filled with snow, a heron hidden in the moon.

A heron, I’m presuming would be a white heron hiding in the moon. So if a
heron was to pass across the moon, then one would not necessarily be able to
see it. A silver bowl filled with snow equates very much the same as the
bullfrog sitting on the Lilly pad. These all come from the idea of the
principles of “Li” and “Shi.” This is part of the Ts’ao-tung or Silent Illumination
teaching and in this particular teaching; the idea is one of mutual
interpenetration - principle and phenomena. This came about in a very early
period and was propagated by the Chan Master Ma-tsu, who was kind of like a
pre-Chan Master of Chan.

The idea of “Li” and “Shi” - of principle and phenomena, probably the
best way to try to explain that to you would be from this one Master Fa-tsang, who
is later known as the Third Patriarch of the Hua-yen School and he developed
this theory of the Golden Lion. In this Golden Lion, he said that:

The statue of the lion represents its phenomenal
existence, but the gold of which it is made is its principle, which is itself
formless, but for that reason can adopt any form which is required.

Any form which is required, so having a cup of tea to drive on the way
here is adopting the form. What’s the form, driving to the class. It’s just that simple. We don't need to be an
intellectual scholar, we don’t have to be a dull that's sweeping the floor;
they're all interpenetrating, fused in that moment. As we look at it, we see
that the form is arising and what makes the form arise?

Student: Causes and conditions.

Gilbert: Yes, causes and conditions – Paticca-samuppada. And Paticca-samuppada,
this causes and conditions is also fused and embodied within the idea of this
principle and form of phenomena. So as we see things in this way, regardless of
what type of phenomena it is, what kind of phenomena arises? What you think?

Student: Thoughts.

Gilbert: Thoughts, you went right to the one I don’t think people would
get to right away, but thoughts are phenomena. Just like you sitting here, like
me speaking, the sound of my voice is phenomena, and the processing in your
consciousness of what I'm saying is also phenomenal. In this way when we look
around, we see that everything at any given moment is testifying to this Golden
Lion - that everything that’s around has the same quality or essence. What’s
the essence, the Tathagatta. It's such in this way - there's a suchness.
Where’s the emptiness? It's constantly changing.

So in this one symbolic comparison, if one puts down the idea of “I see”
and simply fuses with mind, it can be instantaneous like what they talk about
sudden and gradual enlightenment. The sudden enlightenment comes when a person is
prepared, when they have been utilizing the principles and incorporating them
into the practice so that in a moment, there is a fusion and one sees their
self-nature. It can be very fleeting, it can be gone in a moment, and you can
go back to your suffering. But you saw it for a moment and that is something
that’s important.

So we go back to Dongshan’s Precious Mirror Samadhi and the first line
is:

The teaching of suchness is intimately transmitted by
Buddhas and ancestors. Now you have it; preserve it well.

Very interesting this word intimately, what is this intimate
communication? We could say on a very basic level, it could be between two
lovers, and just simply a gaze from one lover to the other, a smile from one
lover to the other, but yet they both know what it means. In that moment, their
mind is fused. Here, it is between the Buddhas and the ancestors - those who have
received this intimate knowledge or training or experience, this teaching of
suchness. So the teaching of suchness is not the words. It's not the Buddha
teaching, but it is one's absorption in that teaching so that principles and
phenomena are just like what he says in the next line:

A silver bowl filled with snow; a heron hidden in the
moon.

It is very symbolic. But to someone who was intimate with the subject,
there's nothing to be said. It's just in this way; it's intimate. So talking
about the silver bowl filled with snow and a heron hidden the moon, Dongshan
says:

Taken as similar, they are not the same; not distinguished,
their places are known.

That’s the same thing as the Golden Lion. Taken as similar they're not
the same: all phenomena is a little bit different but yet it’s not because one
cannot take the snow out of the silver bowl. Their places are known: they are known,
why? It's all mind. And when one looks at the world and sees phenomenally, all
of the things that are arising and falling, arising and falling, arising and falling,
arising and falling, are mind. They’re not separate from it. That which is the
potentiality of phenomena that can come into being, is also mind.

Now to use a very nouveau quantum physicist analysis of this or
symbolism, it's a very interesting thing that the quantum physicists, they weighed
the universe. And what was really interesting is in their way of weighing the universe,
they said it came up short; about 50% short. How can it be 50% short? Nevertheless
the idea is that what is that? What do you think, anybody here science-oriented?

Student: Dark energy or dark matter.

Gilbert: You must’ve read the National Geographic books somewhere along
the line. Tell me how these equate with all of this is dark energy and Chan.
How would you equate it?

Student: Almost preformed; you could say anti-matter.

Gilbert: It’s the potentiality that somebody can come into being and that
potentiality that something can come into being follow certain principles in
order for it to come into being. And what are the principles?

Student: Causes and conditions never fail.

Gilbert: Causes and conditions never fail; so there's that potentiality there.
So we realize that even the concepts of the “horns of a hare” and the “hair on
a tortoise,” those are things that maybe we cannot see but as soon as I say
that, it might come into your mind as a potentiality. Now to fruition
phenomenally, at least it manifested in your mind saying the horn is on a hare
and hair is on the tortoise. It can be that way. A moment ago it wasn't there
and boom, it's there. This idea isn't necessarily positive and negative but it’s
beyond the idea of that. It’s just simply recognizing the thusness of the
things that are there and that we understand phenomenally, that if we wanted to
make a brick, there had to be the potentiality: the things that come into being
to make that brick such as the sand, whatever, holes onto it and maybe the phenomena
of heat to fire the brick to make it hard.

All these things are potentialities that could come into being and then
we look at it and we say “a brick.” But no, we recognize thusness. We might
call it a brick but it is nevertheless mind. It is fused in mind so that the
idea of the principle of the goal does not interfere with the appearances. The
goal can be molded into any kind of an animal, any kind of shape, and it
doesn't interfere and say “No, you can’t mold it in this way.” What is constant
is the impermanence, the emptiness, and that there is a reason why these things
are manifesting.

It’s just the same when we watch weather patterns. If weather men weren’t
scientific and they didn't look at things, they’d go, “What’s the weather going
to be like tomorrow?” “It might snow tomorrow.” But they follow the trends.
They have certain things they can look at and say “These things will more than
likely come to pass because of this.” They can see that. And so the same with us,
as we navigate through all of these phenomena, we are better able to anticipate
the things that are going to arise around us because we know causes and
conditions never fail. When they never fail, then we know that certain things
have this kind of potentiality to happen.

Today I was advising a person about a particular case. I told him the
potentiality of things that could happen to him in the case based on my
experience of seeing human nature. I told him that he needed to respond very
quickly or else he would have problems from his interaction with another person.
I wouldn’t probably be willing to bet the farm that he will have problem with
the person exactly as I’m saying. But because causes and conditions never fail,
the patterns fit there. I may be wrong but the chances of not being wrong is
such that it gives me the ability to talk to this person and give him guidance
from the experience I had with many people having the same situation, in the
same situation I've probably seen twice in the last week. So the possibilities
of that happening are very great. We look at the world in this way. We don't
look at it from the idea like a weatherman that is totally ignorant saying “I
don't know what's going to happen.” They know what the probabilities are and
then they guide themselves in this way.

It is a wonderful thing about Chan that really helps us because it keeps
us from being bound to what has happened in the past. We can change it. We can
mold our future by setting into motion the things that are necessary for us to
do what we have to do. When we don't to that, then we expect a certain result.
We’re foolish because why would we expect something when we haven't put into it
the parts necessary to bring about that object?

So if we say “I really want to stop spending” but then apply for another
credit card, we’re moving in an opposite direction in terms of what we’re doing.
It's as simple as that in any kind of an interaction with what we do in this
world. “Why don’t people like me,” because you yell all the time or you're
angry or you’re selfish or whatever. The solution is very simple, be a nice
person. Be a hopeful person and people will like you. You don't have to be
overly that way, we follow the Middle Way. But we become a more sincere person
and we find out things as to what we like in other people. There are people who
like people who like to argue and they like that. But if you find a person that
likes to argue, you probably want to move away from them if at all possible. Any
question so far of what I am talking about? Because it really pertains to what
you’re doing when you're sitting on the cushion.

Let me continue on with this Lion analogy:

The goal of which it is made is it's principle which is
itself formless but for the reason can adopt any form is required, is where we left off. Because every heart of the lion is made of gold, principle is
necessarily present in each of the parts: the whole is identical with the parts
and vice versa. Consequently all
phenomena manifest one principle, and this one principle achieves its
expression in the world of phenomena.

All of that goes back all the way up to the ancient sutras and the early
Prajnaparamita Sutras. This is from the Hua-yen School but was put into
practice in Silent Illumination. How is it put into practice in Silent Illumination?
Because when we sit in meditation, we’re “just sitting.” Whatever arises, we
recognize as phenomenal; it is arising from mind. It is not separate from mind.
There is a total fusion in that moment. If self arises, it is illuminated and
recognized as phenomenal that it has its reasons for arising. But its total
illumination fuses with principle so that there is no one there to claim it as
a thought. When that happens, then the mind becomes very still, very stable.

Thoughts nevertheless continue to arise, yet they are not taken to be
thoughts but taken to be appearing in mind, perfectly reflected in mind so that
no longer is one viewing it from the idea of subject and object as much as from
the idea of a total fusion of the experience, so that the principle, the mind does
not interfere with the arising of the thought, but simply allows the thoughts
to be perfectly reflected in accordance with their nature.

We cannot stop thoughts even if we wanted to try to stop them by commanding
them to stop because that would probably make them stronger. And as you make
them stronger, they will pop up again. And you would be like the analogy of the
Dutch boy trying to plug the holes in the dam - you’re soon going to run out of
fingers and then the thoughts will overcome you. But if one does not allow these
thought to overwhelm you or be to the point where there is the creation of
subject and object in mind, remember I said “creation of subject and object,” because
ignorance is not separate from the principle. Even if you sit and are attached
to your thoughts, it is nevertheless the mind perfectly functioning. To you,
you feel the suffering of not being able to stop thoughts. It's only because of
that ignorance that you cannot see that those thoughts are naturally arising.

When we enter into allowing the principle to define everything
arising as naturally arising, the mind is liberated. We’re no longer
succumbing to the idea of a life-in-being or a personality. The mind is very
very quiet, yet it's illuminated; that's important. It's an important difference
because if we attempted to stop our thoughts, we might be able to do that. There
are techniques to be able to stop your thoughts, to make your mind dead, but
there's no illumination; nothing’s happening. You’re just in a dead zone - a
dark cave inhabited by ghosts. A lot of people enter this dead zone and take it
for enlightenment but is not. It is that the purpose of well-known adviser is
to analyze a person's experience to be able to determine what kind of experience
that person has, because with the self, we’re always thinking we got it - “This
time for sure I got it!” But it isn't always that way.

But when we just sit, we sit and we’re quiet in our sitting. Quiet does
not mean dead. What it means is that we are not attaching to the thoughts that
are arising and mind is nevertheless illuminated and perfectly radiating and
testifying to this “causes and conditions never fail.” It’s perfectly happening
and we’re aware of it. Master Sheng-yen said that non-sentient beings testify
to the mind, to the True Nature. They are always testifying, listening.
“Listen!” “I can’t hear anything!” They are listening with their ears and trying
to hear the non-sentient beings talking. “What is that? Can I hear them?” No,
they can’t hear them.

So it brings me segueing into Dongshan, the author or the lead author of
the Precious Mirror of Samadhi and his training on suchness and lo and behold,
it’s symbolic. Not the training because if you're going to train on suchness, what
are you going to train people with? So let's see what happens here. This is a
story of his first meeting with his master, Master Yunyan. Dongshan was questioning
him about whether or not non-sentient beings could expound the Dharma.

The story presented in Dongshan’s recorded saying is extensive and very
elaborate. He asked his master Guishan-lingyu(?).Guishan-lingyuwas a
very famous master at the time and was one of the heads of the Five Houses of
Chan at that time. Dongshan repeated to Guishan the story that he heard about
an exchange between a student and this other teacher, Huizhong, who was the National
Teacher at that time, who maintained that

So Huizhong, this natural teacher states that he himself
cannot hear the non-sentient beings expounding, because otherwise the student
could not hear his teaching.

What does that mean? Huizhong is saying, “I can't hear it because if I
heard it, I wouldn’t be able to teach you.” And then the Huizhong provides
scriptural source for the expounding of non-sentient beings in the Avatamsaka
Sutra citing the passage:

The Earth expounds the Dharma, living beings expound it
throughout the three times; everything expounds it.

So here again, he's talking about this fusion of everything and looking
at things with the principle applied to the phenomena - the Li and the Shi present
constantly interpenetrating, interacting.

After narrating the story, Dongshan asked Guishan to
comment and Guishan raised his fly-whisk. Dongshan didn’t understand what he
just did. So Guishan said, “It cannot be explained to you by one born of mother
and father.” Dongshan would later refer to such non-explanation with appreciation.
Finally, Guishan suggested that he visit you Yunyan for further explanation.

So at this point he's telling him it cannot be explained by one born to
a mother and father. What is he saying?

Student: It cannot be expressed in words?

Gilbert: More than that. The critical part here is born.

Student: (inaudible)

Gilbert: That’s right; so looking from the viewpoint of one who is
clinging to the idea of a personality, an ego. It cannot be explained to because that person still has the idea subject
and object, the ego versus the environment around them rather than being able
to fuse with the environment around them. That’s kind of where they’re headed
here that if you cling to that, you’re not going to get it that way.

Returning you Dongshan’s story, when he finally arrived
at Yunyan after leaving Guishan he asked who was able to hear the Dharma
expounded by non-sentient beings. Yunyan said that “Non-sentient beings are
able to hear it.” When asked if Yunyan could hear it, he told Dongshan that if
he could, then Dongshan could not hear him. Then Dongshan asked why he could
not hear it. Yunyan raised his fly-whisk, and then asked if Dongshan heard it
yet. When Dongshan replied he could not, Yunyan said, “You can even hear
when I expound the Dharma; how do you expect to hear when a non-sentient being expounds
the Dharma?”

What's happening here, anybody?

Student: (inaudible)

Gilbert: Whether it did or not, that might be irrelevant but you're,
looking in the right direction. It’s the symbolism of a non-sentient being
which is the fly-whisk itself and being raised. Why is it being raised, it’s in
accordance with causes and conditions. Everything is perfectly reflected in
that way. As he sees the fly-whisk, he understands that that too is impermanent,
that too is moving. Once it was down, now it's up but he missed it. He missed
all that, that fusion in the mind. He cannot hear it because he's born from a
mother and father so he has the attachment of the self. Yes, there's that idea
but it's not profound as much as the symbolism of a non-sentient being in
motion. The body is a non-sentient being in motion actually.

You can even hear when I expound the Dharma; how do you expect to hear
when a non-sentient being expounds the Dharma, the idea here is later on when
he figured it all out, then he wrote this verse:

How marvelous, how marvelous; the Dharma expounded by non-sentient
beings is inconceivable.

Listening with your ears, no sound.

You were listening for the sound of the whisk but it wasn't in the sound
of the whisk.

Hearing with your eyes, you directly understand.

It's a very very succinct, very clear passage. The message that he’s
saying is that we listen with all our senses. When we listen with all of our senses without thinking of a life-in-being,
a personality, or ego, we’re completely fused with all phenomena and we are at
one with the principle. This is the illumination of the mind. Any question?